A test of faith.

A couple of days ago, a good friend of mine who resides in Dubai met with an awful tragedy. Her home was caught on fire. Fortunately, none of her family member and herself was physically hurt in this tragedy. I dare not comment on their mental state though.

I cannot even begin to imagine what it's like to see your home on fire. I guess a lot of "what if" questions pop into your mind. What if the kids were asleep and did not manage to escape? What if I had not decided to take the baby with me? What if I was there, would I be able to prevent it? What if I had put my valuables in better safe keeping? So many questions would surely pass your mind but the fact remains, tragedy has struck and it is irreversible.

A friend wrote on my FB, 'when a thief enters your home, he will at least leave some things behind but when it's fire, it takes everything in it's path.' I couldn't agree more.

What do you say to a friend who has been through such an ordeal? Be brave? Be strong? Be patient? Well, the truth is, I really don't know what is the politically correct thing to say. I just know that I'm sorry to see her go through something so terrible and traumatizing. She has my deepest sympathy.

I truly believe that Allah only test those near and dear to Him. A test of this magnitude is a test of faith and obedience and only the truly devoted will get through such tests unscathed. Makes me question my own faith, obedience and devotion as a Muslim. Will such an event shake my faith and devotion to Allah? Half my life ago, Allah had tested my family and me. I am ashamed that then, I had failed miserably In His test. If I was given another great test now, would I do any better now? I don't know. Do I want to know? I don't know. Do I think that now, I am a better Muslim than I previously was back then? Looking at my previous answers, I guess the obvious answer is no. :(

I pray for my friend. I pray for the ease of her burden. And now I pray for me. May I be a good Muslim, the way Allah had intended me to be. Subhanallah wa bi hamdihi.

Smilebox Scrapbooks

I discovered this cool software called Smilebox. This is my first creation! :))

This scrapbooking design made with Smilebox

Hot! Hot! Hot!

The weather is getting freakishly hot! The news reported that the temperature has gotten to a level that it is unbearable for living condition. I'm not sure what that means exactly but it sounds scary enough to me.

These days, I try at all cost to not leave the house during daytime. Not that it gets any better at night, but at least the glaring sun isn't there to add to your misery.
Went out to take the kids for their taekwondo class this morning and the car's temperature indicator thingy or whatever it is you call it showed the temperature at 40C. That was at 9.30am!

One of my greatest fear comes Summer is that the tyres of my car would burst whilst driving. Well, the other day, the temperatures soared up to 48C and that great fear materialized. Fortunately, I had stopped at a traffic light when it happen so no harm done. Phew.

Read in the news that they are expecting one of the hottest summer by far. Since it is only May, I guess the worst it yet to come. Eek. I have been told that This heat wave we are experiencing is nothing compared to Hell fire. Yikes! Must keep reminding myself to be very, very, very good. Gotta avoid it at all cost. I easily burn. ;)

To School or Not to School...That is the Question.

It is actually too late to still be contemplating as places for preschools are filling up fast but I still can't decide whether to send my little one off to school or not. Baby H won't actually be required to start school till September 2012, however the competition to get into school is quite stiff so sending her to preschool would definitely give her an advantage over the other children when we send in her application for school next year.

Apparently, since the school is so sought after, the fact that you may already have siblings in the school is no longer an advantage. Heard this year, the school had received 120 application from siblings asking to get into FS1. They had only like 80 to 100 places on offer. The school is now able to pick and choose who they would accept which would be the best of the best. Boy, was I lucky with Cheeky M. If he had to be assessed 2 years ago, I could guarantee he would not be accepted as he wasn't even able to talk back then. He was among the few that skipped the assessment and immediately accepted because he had a sibling already attending that school.

A friend of mine took her son for an assessment recently. He is a little cheeky fellow but I've always thought that this child was one very smart cookie. He could count to 100 assisted and unassisted could do up to 30. They asked him to string beads, count, identify colours and shapes. He did it all just fine. However when it came to his conversation skills, they thought he was not at par as he wasn't as articulate as they would prefer and was mixing his languages together (he is bilingual) in one sentence. So he was rejected by the school. In his defense, the boy wasn't even 3 yet, and won't be 3 for the next couple of month. IMO, he did an amazing job for a 2 year old!

That got me really worried. Baby H will be turning 3 this December. She doesn't even know her colours and shapes yet. All animals are either a sheep, cat or dog to her. I'm haunted by the fear that she will fail miserably for the assessment if she isn't sent to preschool to prepare herself.

However, the thought of forking out almost AED30k on preschool makes me choke. That on top of the extra AED30k I have to fork out to top up the older childrens' school fees!  That would be AED60k altogether. Significantly more than what I had paid for my two university diplomas and degree course. Cost of graduation included! Gosh, now I feel absolutely faint.

ADD told me to skip the preschool and just teach Baby H myself. He said it's about time I put my Early Childhood Education diploma to good use. I could do that, but I doubt I have the discipline and consistency to do it especially that without having extra help at home, I'd be too distracted with the house chores and the two older kids. But it's a thought worth considering because I really do enjoy teaching small children. To be there and watch them learn and discover new things is a joy and also a learning experience that words just fail to describe.

So I'm on a cross road here. Should I just close my eyes, dig deep into our pockets and put her in a preschool which may or not may not guarantee her a place in school the following year OR should I not put her in preschool, try to teach her myself and just risk her chances of getting a place in school the following year? The answer is....I dunno, I dunno, I dunno.

Over the Years...

From top: Dearest S (15/5/2003), Cheeky M (28/2/2006), Baby H (20/12/2008)

DeaDe

Top to bottom : Photos of Dearest S from age 1 to 8.

Top to bottom: Cheeky M  age 1 to 5

Baby H age 1 to 2
Time really does fly. I marvel at how fast they grow. Before I know it, I'll be posing photos of them in their teens. My babies are growing up too fast! :'(

House Hunting in Abu Dhabi

Six months ago, ADD and I decided that it was time for us to move into a new home. Although we really do love living in our current home, our 3 bedroom apartment can no longer accommodate our 3 growing children. Besides, the children's school has proposed to increase their fees and since ADD's company has only allocated a certain amount for school fees, the rest would have to come out from our own pockets and a with 3 children, its quite a substantial amount too. We figured we could make up the difference by dipping into our housing allowance but to do so, we will be required to move out of our current company provided accommodation and find one on our own.

3 years ago, it wouldn't be possible to find a decent house with our meager housing allowance. The cost of rentals in Abu Dhabi borders on astronomical. I remember a friend was offered a studio with large kitchen for AED60k a year. We went to check it out only to find that the so called 'studio' was in fact just a large kitchen at the back of the house! The audacity of the agent to try to pass off the kitchen for a studio  is beyond belief and pricing it at AED5k a month is just highway robbery. It didn't even have a proper bathroom and the agent proposed to build a small makeshift one outside the 'studio', which means you'll need to step out of your house every time you need to take a leak. Ridiculous. The agent was haughty and had a take it or leave it attitude. He and a few more other agents I came across was nothing more than scumbags.

Today, since the price of rentals are slowly coming down, our meager housing allowance could actually afford us a nice, suitable 4 or 5 bedroom villa. However, the focus here is to make a little on the side so fully capitalizing the entire amount just for a villa isn't very beneficial. or even practical. During the peak of summer, electricity bills tends to soar up due to A/C usage, so we've got to include that in our budget as well.

So after including other costs and what we needed to cover the school fees, we are down to looking for villas that's either a little over or just under AED100k a year. And where are these villas located? At the end of the earth, in the middle of nowhere. Sigh.

Anyway, a couple of days ago ADD, the kids and I took a little excursion to address nowhere, end of the earth to take a look at one of the villas there. The villa was kind of nice, spacious and practical although the whole wall deco is a bit err retro??? to my taste, nothing a lick of paint won't fix. (Seriously, purple glittery hearts all over the wall? And it wasn't even wall paper but looked hand drawn!) The view was fantastic. Sea view and white beach sands all around. However, when I got up to the roof to get a better view, I noticed every single neighbour around that villa had herds of goats in their compound! Having goats all around me  was something I'm just not too keen on. The price was right, but villa in the middle of nowhere was also halfway to Dubai, might as well I move to Dubai where the costs of rentals are considerably cheaper.

So here we are, still no where near finding a suitable home. However, a little birdie brought good news today. Lets see if that works out. :)

Happy Birthday Dearest S

8 years ago, on May 15th, 2003 at 12.15pm, I gave birth to the most perfect little baby girl I've ever laid my eyes on. That very moment, for the first time in my life, I fell in love at first sight. She looked like Snow White. In fact, that was what all the nurses had nicknamed her. She was fair and had the reddest pair of rose bud lips. That was my Dearest S. My pride and joy.

Today, 8 years later, she is still the most perfect little baby girl to me. Thank you for just being you. I love you very much Dearest S. Happy 8th Birthday. I still fall in love with you each time I look at you.You are and will forever be my pride and joy.

My Dancing Angels

I've been meaning to blog about this but just couldn't find the time (yeah yeah...excuses, excuses :p) Anyway, at the end of last term, Dearest S came up to me and told me she wanted to audition for the school's dance show. I said yeah, sure go ahead darling. But then, she didn't want to perform any random dance but an authentic traditional dance from Malaysia. Wow! The fact that she actually wanted to dance was one thing, being a self declared tomboy and all but to perform a graceful, feminine traditional dance. Seriously, to the alien that has abducted my daughter, you can keep her for awhile...let me enjoy and play with this replacement for the time being. ;)

So I gathered her friends that lived within the same compound ( I figured it would be easier logistically wise since I had less than a fortnight to train these girls.) and decided to teach them The Court  Dance, Asyik. Since childhood, I had always been fascinated by this dance. This dance is in my lineage. It was from where my family was from. It is a regal, graceful dance that is usually performed for Sultans and nobilities. Boy, was I excited.

The girls were amazing. They learned all the steps in just 3 days! Super amazing. Went for the audition and obviously aced it. Best part was, I posted their audition on Facebook and a friend from the embassy approached me and asked the girls to perform for a charity event at the embassy. The girls were thrilled!

Got some materials from Malaysia for their costumes. Got a local tailor to stitch it up for AED35 a dress. I handmade the head gears, belts , necklaces and all the accessories and voila! I had transformed the 6 girls into 6 exquisite dancing angels.

The girls performances Wowwed their audience and I had recently received and invitation for them to perform for another and actually get paid for it! Looks like I can actually look forward to early retirement! LOL! ;) I'm really proud of each and every one of them. but mostly, I'm proud of Dearest S for inspiring me with her great idea.

Stomach Flu Diet

I am currently on the best diet ever! It is better than Dukan and Atkins any day. It's called the Stomach flu diet. 4 days in and I've already lost 3kgs. Going through the stomach flu diet leaves you just as miserable as Atkins and Dukan and has the added bonus of stomach cramps, Diarrhea, nausea, chills and fever! But still, 3kgs loss and it's waaay better than sweating it out on the treadmill! I am now a firm advocate of the stomach flu diet! Try it and you will definitely get immediate result. Weight loss guaranteed! ;)

I heart Abu Dhabi.

I feel awful for neglecting my blog for so long. Been very busy. So much has happened since my last update. I'm currently under the weather as I'm plagued with the stomach flu. Chills, purging, nausea and abdominal pain is no fun especially since AD daddy isn't around and I'm home alone with 3 kids that needs me to feed and look after them. My kids had to settle with Doritos for brekkie and lunch. Hey, desperate times require desperate measures. Besides, they are not complaining. I actually think they rather enjoy this change of menu. Beats having oatmeal! Lol!

So what's new? Dearest S was in a dance show and was later invited by the embassy for a charity dance show. She will be celebrating her 8th birthday this Sunday. Hope I've recuperated from my illness by then.

Cheeky M is cheekier than ever. There's certainly something about the 5-7yo phase. It's not as bad as the terrible twos but I would rank it to something close as that. He is testing my limits all the time these days but my only boy seriously knows how to play me. Its hard to be or stay mad at him.

Baby H is the epitome of the terrible twos. She sticks to me like glue! I love you so very much baby...but please, please, please give me some space!

I lost my Gucci wallet the other day. Dropped it in one of the shops in Marina Mall. Only realized it was gone 2 days later. I was frantic! My ID, driving license, cards and all the children's medical cards were in that wallet. Not to mention...my Gucci wallet itself! After that wallet, how could I possibly go back to some mediocre brand? The worst part was, I had made a vow to stop buying ridiculously expensive brands. I was devastated.

So I went back to the mall, albeit 2 days later, bracing myself for the worst. Entered the last shop I was in and asked the cashier if he had happen to know the whereabouts of my wallet. I was surprised when the guy exclaimed, " you're the one! My colleague hanged on to it till the end of her shift and since you didn't come back, she surrendered it to the mall manager." I was overjoyed!

I went to see the mall manager and he directed me to security. The security guys had it safely locked in their safe. Bless them all! If I was back in my home country, it's definitely sayonara wallet!

Reminds me of my first year here. I had left my brand new Limited edition LV handbag ( my one and only LV handbag I must add :p) in the ladies toilet while I was changing Baby H. Realized it was missing when I was well seated in our car. I totally freaked out! I had my passport and all the kids passports in the bag and AED2000. I ran as fast as I could back to that toilet and my heart plummeted when I saw that the washroom was full of people. I went back into the washroom and lo and behold, there was my handbag. Upfront, next to one of the sinks. None of the ladies even paid any attention to it.

It's incidents like this that makes me appreciate Abu Dhabi more. :)